4 April 2022

Advisory Committee for Public Lending Right – Vacancy for Chair

The British Library Advisory Committee for Public Lending Right was established to provide expert advice to the Library on the operation of the UK PLR Scheme and to represent the views of PLR stakeholders. The Committee is made up of a Chair and six members: two members representing registered authors, two representing the public library community and two from the wider PLR constituency (book trade, writing, publishing, authors’ agents, copyright and intellectual property etc).

We are currently seeking applicants for a Chair. The deadline for applications is 29 April 2022.

Further information on the Committee can be found here.

If you are interested in this role please email a brief resume to headofplr@bl.uk

18 February 2022

UK PLR annual payments

PLR payments to UK accounts have now been made, please allow 3-5 working days for these to reach your account.

December 2021 

UK PLR annual statements

This year’s Rate Per Loan for the Irish PLR Scheme is 11.26 pence.

UK PLR statements are now available to view - You will have been sent a link to your statement if you have an online account or an offline account with an email address.

Online statements are provided regardless of whether there is a payment due. If you do not have an online account you will receive a paper statement. Please note that paper statements are only sent to those who are due to receive a payment (i.e. your registered titles earn £1 or more).

November 2021 

Irish PLR annual statements

This year’s Rate Per Loan for the Irish PLR Scheme is 11.29 cent.

Irish PLR statements are now available to view - You will have been sent a link to your statement if you have an online account or an offline account with an email address.

Online statements are provided regardless of whether there is a payment due. If you do not have an online account you will receive a paper statement. Please note that paper statements are only sent to those who are due to receive a payment (i.e. your registered titles earn €2 or more).

1 July 2021

Extension of PLR to include remote loans of ebooks and eaudio-books from public libraries in Northern Ireland

The British Library is pleased to announce that a Statutory Instrument comes into force, today, 1 July 2021 extending PLR to include remote loans of ebooks and eaudio-books from public libraries in Northern Ireland. Contributors to titles in these formats loaned from public libraries in Northern Ireland will be eligible for PLR payments for the first time. This legislative change brings the loans of ebooks and eaudio-books from these libraries into line with loans from public libraries in the rest of the UK.

Tom Holland, Chair of the PLR Advisory Committee, said of the changes: “This additional legislation to include PLR on these loans from public libraries in Northern Ireland will be hugely to the benefit of authors, who are fully aware that printed books these days are not the only way of reaching their readers." He added: “The changes in library borrowing as a result of Covid has had a significant impact on loans of ebooks and eaudio-books. The inclusion of their loans from Northern Ireland public libraries will be of great advantage to all authors and other contributors to these titles.”   

The change comes into effect from 1 July 2021, with data on ebook and eaudio book loans being collected from this date and the first payments being made in February 2023.

Further information on the registration of non-print material can be found on the PLR website.

15 January 2021

UK PLR annual payments

PLR payments to UK accounts have now been made and those to overseas accounts will be made on Monday 18th Jan. Please allow 3-5 working days for these to reach your account.

6 January 2021

UK PLR annual statements and payments

We're very pleased to announce that PLR statements are now available online. For anyone waiting for a postal statement these will be despatched later this week. Please make any amendments asap.

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